Blind to the Danger
by The Blind Apprentice
Summary: Awesome... I finally have a title. This is about a blind kid becoming a pretender at the Centre
1. Retrieval

**Title**: In Progress…suggestions saught

**Author**: The Blind Apprentice

**Summary**: Got this idea from the fic 'Renewal Wing'. In typical Center fashion, a child is stolen, but not just any child. This child is blind. How will she cope with being the Center's newest 'acquisition'? Who will be her handler? Will the monsters of the Center overtake her? You won't know unless you read this fic.

This is my FIRST Pretender Fanfic, criticism and suggestions are needed and appreciated!

Date: Day unknown, January 1990

Location: Bedroom of a child in suburbia

Four-year-old Elizabeth slept soundly. It had been an exciting day for the sweet child. She had gone back to school today to discover that her teachers were different. Instead of their being Mrs. Smith, there was a man. She didn't know mans could be teachers, she thought they were just daddys.

Her new teacher was Mr. Williams. He said that he came from a special place just to work with her! She brought a letter home with her from school that day that said that she had been selected for the 'gifted and talented program'. She didn't know what that meant, but mommy and daddy were really happy and they gave her ice cream for desert at dinner that night.

Mr. Williams was a nice mans. He had glasses like her friend Rudy did, but he said that he could see good, but they helped him to read. She understood needing help to read, they had to make her letters really big so she could read them, and they one time tried teaching her how to read with her fingers. This didn't make sense, she thought you readed with your eyes, not your fingers. Silly grown-ups.

Mr. Williams was lots of fun, she played all sorts of games and he told her that they were going to pretend. She knew how to pretend, that was fun! They colored lots and she even got to play with blocks, that was her favoritest thing to do. She played with cars too, she liked to pretend she was driving and this was her car. She liked her new teacher.

She was so deeply asleep, that she didn't notice someone opening her bedroom door. She also didn't hear the hushed conversation going on between two grown-ups who were in her room. "Which one is it?"

"I donno, where's the photo?" the other man pulled a photo from a newspaper out of his pocket.

"The kid has glasses on." He bent down to look at one of the sleeping girls in the room. "It's the blonde-headed one, I think it's the one you've got."

"You damn well better be right." He gently lifted the blanket to reveal a little girl wearing yellow pajamas. On the shelf next to her bed was a pair of glasses. "Yep, this is her. Come 'ere and help me with the hood."

"Why does it have to be the hood, they always freak out when we put that on them."

"Hell if I know, doing the same as you. Following orders." The two men had gently lifted the sleeping girl's head and put the hood over it and tied the knot tightly enough to keep the hood on, but gently as to not wake her.

The other man wrapped her in her blanket and gently lifted the sleeping child and carried her out of the room, and eventually out of the house.

The child woke sometime later, they noticed her begin to move and heard the sounds of waking up. The hood must have tickled her face because she raised her hand to scratch her nose. That's when she froze, she realized that whatever this black thing was, it was all around her head. She started to fiddle with it, when a voice from above her said, "Stop that!"

She froze with fear. Who was that? It didn't sound like her daddy's voice, but it was a big mans voice and he sounded mad.

She put her hands down and started to wiggle. She then noticed that she was wrapped in her blanket, she could smell her mommy on it. Where was her mommy? Where was her daddy? Who was the big man? Why was this thing on her head? The next thing she noticed was that she couldn't move so well, she figured out that she was laying on a seat and the seatbelt was around her waist. She also then noticed that she was in a car because she could hear the sounds of driving and feel her body move as the car drov. She then noticed that she had to go pee pee.

She always did when she got up, her mommy would take her to the bathroom then she would brush her teeth, then her mommy would help her get dressed for school. Oh no, she would not be able to go to school! She liked school, she liked her new teacher, and she wanted to be with her friends!

She thought about it for a second and realized that she really had to go pee pee. She was going to bust if she didn't go, and she would get in trouble if she wetted her pants again.

She said to the big man, "Mister, I need to go pee pee."

The one that spoke to her earlier said, "Hush, be quiet!"

This scared her, but she really had to go pee pee! She started to squirm uncomfortably. The man spoke again, "Stop that! Stay still!"

She got even more scared, but she was about to wet her pants. "But mister, I really gotta go pee pee!"

Another man in the car said, "We gotta let her go, I don't want the car stinking up, besides if she's got on wet pants, it'll be our asses."

She had never heard bad words like that before! That was bad! They shouldn't say that!

The other man spoke again, "All right, we're going to let you go pee, but you have to promise you won't run away. Understand?"

She nodded.

The car pulled over and stopped. The car turned off and the door where the driver was opened and so did the other door. Then, the door to her right opened, and someone bent over her and undid the seatbelt. The other door opened and someond unwrapped her from the blanket and gently lifted her and brought her out of the car.

He was the man who had not yelled at her. "I got a daughter, let me handle this. Besides, you hate kids."

The other man grunted.

The man holding her said, "I am going to hold your hand and I want you to go with me, ok? We're going to the bathroom, but it's a big scary place and you could get lost."

The other man said, "You better behave or else." The unknown 'else' scared her, so when the man holding her put her down, she held onto his hand.

The bathroom at this gas station was on the outside, and they had parked next to the door, so they didn't have to worry about anyone seeing a child wearing a hood being taken into a bathroom, especially since it was a men's bathroom.

He gently led her into the bathroom, and over to the toilet. He said, "All right, I'll turn around to give you some privacy."

She sat and he heard her go, then she said, "Can you check?"

He turned around to look at her. "What?"

"Can you check to make sure I wiped right? My mommy usually does and she's not here."

"I'm sure you did fine, now pull your pants up all right."

She slid down from the toilet and pulled up her pants. He noticed that she was wearing pull-ups. "Are you potty-trained yet?"

"Yeah, but I wets my bed sometimes, and my mommy said that I gotta wear this thing till I can learn to not do that."

He smiled, he remembered when his daughter was her age, what a shame she was going to live at the Center, but orders were orders. "Ok, lets wash our hands." He lifted her gently and helped her wash her hands, then dry them. "All right, here we go, back out to the car." He grasped her hand and lead her back to the car where he put her in the backseat with the seatbelt on.

The other man dropped his cigarette and sqished it with the toe of his shoe. "'Bout time. What'd she do, fall in?" he thought this was funny and chuckled for a while as they drove.

He said, "I'll be so glad when this detail's done, I hate kids. Always cryin and whining, give 'em a good beaten. That's what my daddy used to do and look how I turned out?"

The driver chuckled, "Like a baboon."

She was curious, "What's a baboon?"

The mean man growled, "Shut up you brat!"

She gasped, what did she do? Why was he mad, maybe he needed a hug. She started to pull at her seatbelt. Suddenly, a big hand came down and smacked her hands. "Leave that alone! Don't let me catch you touchin that again, do you hear me?!"

Tears started to well up in her eyes and she started to sniff. "I….I'm…s…sorry."

"Quit your blubberin' before I give ya something to cry about!" This had the negative effect of making her cry even harder.

"N….no……I…..I'll…..b…..be….good."

She wiped her eyes on the thing around her head and tried to catch her breath.

A long time later, she woke up. She didn't know she had gone to sleep, but someone had covered her with a blanket again. She felt the car stop and heard the doors open and slam. She heard talking outside the car, then the door to her left opened and the man from before who took her potty unbuckled her seatbelt and picked her up.

"Okay, here we go." He said as they started to walk away from the car.

"Where are we going?"

"Well, we're going to a really nice place. There are people waiting to see you. They can't wait!" She just had no idea how true of a statement that was.

The man, Mr. Daniels carried the small child into the lobby of the Center and over to an elevator. He pressed the button for SL-27, this is where the intake lab was.

She liked to ride in elevators, there was an elevator at the hospital, they made her tommy feel funny.

The elevator stopped and the man carried the still-hooded child down the corridor into a room marked 'Infurmary'. He carried her inside and spoke to the nurse at the desk. "Bryant Daniels, bringing prospect 451 for intake."

The nurse nodded. "Name?"

"Hey, what's your name?"

She didn't know what to do, she wasn't sposed to talk to strangers, but if this lady was a doctor or a teacher of a policeman she could tell her. She whispered in the man's ear. "Is the lady a doctor, a teacher, or a policeman? Cuz mommy told me to not talk to strangers."

He couldn't help but smile at that one, it was the same thing he and his wife had told their child. "She's a nurse, that's kinda like a doctor. You can tell her your name, it's ok."

"My name's Elizabeth, what's your name?"

The nurse merely nodded and scribbled on her clipboard. "Time of retrieval?"

"I think it was 0100, it took us eight hours to get here, so…yeah, 0100."

"Condition in which subject was retrieved?"

"She was asleep in her bedroom with another child. I assume it to be a sister."

"Chelsea, where is she?"

The nurse ignored her question. "All right, bring her in here and we'll get started."

Bryan carried Elizabeth into the indicated room and gently sat her on the bed. The nurse turned to him and said, "remove the hood but remain in case she tries to bolt."

He nodded and gently untid the knot and took off the hood. The kid had bright blue-green eyes with medium-length straight blonde hair. The only negative thing was that she had snot all over her face from when she had cried earlier. The nurse got a tissue and wiped the child's nose.

Elizabeth looked around the room in curiosity. It was a small room with white walls, a door, and no windows. The nurse began doing to intake procedures, wich included the usual check-up, heart rate, resperation, hitting her knee with the rubber mallot and other such things. The last order of business was a blood sample. When Elizabeth saw the needle, she instinctively backed up.

Bryan, seeing a scary situation came to the child. He gently picked her up and held her while the nurse drew blood. This made Elizabeth cry and he had to wipe her nose again. The nurse came back a moment later with a pair of underwear to fit her, and grey pants and a grey shirt.

She turned to Elizabeth, "time to get dressed."

She took one look at the clothes and shook her head. Bryan interveined again, "Hey Elizabeth, are you hungry?" He knew full well she was, but wanted to distract her. "Because if you let the nurse dress you, we'll go get some breakfast."

She thought about it for a second then decided, she reached her hands out toward the nurse who grabbed her and stood her on the table. She removed the pull-ups and put new underwear on the child, then the grey pants and grey shirt.

The little girl looked down at hersef. "Where are my socks? Mommy said that I shouldn't go without socks."

The nurse put rubber-bottomed grey socks on the child and stood her on the floor. Bryan extended his hand and she grasped it.

**Author's Note**: Love it? Hate it? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!!


	2. Observations

Just some things you oughta know.. (...) means that someone's thinking...Typically this tends to be Sydney.

I'm going to respond to some of your reviews at the end of the chapter.

Thank you all SO much for reviewing. Pretender fans are loyal ones...and I hope I don't disappoint.

Don't forget to review!!

-**The Blind Apprentice**

**Chapter Two:**

Elizabeth walked with Bryan out of the Infirmary and down a dark hallway. This place was scary, it didn't have any windows and the walls were dark and the floor was a dark shiny color. The lights were flat-paneled florescent lights that were at 45 degree angles at all four corners of the hallway. There was no sound, the space was quiet, it was an almost unhealthy quiet. Not even the sound of exhaust fans could be heard, or the sound of Bryan's footsteps.

Bryan took her down the hallway for a while then turned a knob on a door. This door didn't look different from any other door but inside the room, she thought she had never seen so many colors.

**&&&&&&&&**

The room itself was just as bland as the corridor had been, with blue industrial-style carpet. The walls were a dark blue-grey color with florescent lights in the ceiling. In the room however, were a multitude of things.

There were mats on the floor, one had a scene of a town from an aerial view with roads and houses all drawn in cartoon with bright colors. In the middle of that mat was a plastic tub with cars in it. On another mat, was a hop scotch game done in vibrant colors. In a tub against the wall, were an assortment of balls and soft toys. In another tub against the wall were blocks. These were standard one-inch wooden blocks with colored letters and numbers on them. In the final tub was an assortment of legos, with a table for building legos in the center of the room with three brightly colored plastic chairs sitting around the table. The only unusual thing in this room was a mirror against one wall.

Elizabeth gawked at the sight of so many toys. She didn't know what to play with first! She looked up at Bryan who was still holding her hand. "Well, go on!" he gave her a nudge in the direction of the toys.

As the two had entered the Playroom, all of the lights and security cameras had turned on. These were not there to prevent people from stealing, instead they were for observation.

Bryan left her to the toys and returned a few moments later, to find her playing with the legos on the lego table. She looked up as he entered the room with a brightly colored yellow bowl with oatmeal in it. He sat the oatmeal and a spoon down on the table, and then left the room again. The girl pulled the bowl toward her and started to eat.

**&&&&&&&**

Once she had finished, Bryan returned and took the bowl from her. He was under strict orders not to speak to her, so when she asked him where her mommy and daddy were, he ignored her and left the room with the empty bowl. She looked hurt, but once again turned to the toys.

**&&&&&&&&**

Four hours later, she had built a castle with the legos, driven the cars around on the mat, played hop scotch for about twenty minutes, and was bouncing a ball when the door opened.

**&&&&&&&&**

Dr. Sydney Greene had observed the child playing for the last forty-five minutes, taking down everything he observed on a yellow legal pad.

He decided that the child started to look bored, so he decided to make his entrance.

**&&&&&&&**

Before he had entered the observation room, he looked over the notes her 'teacher' had made while she had been at school.

"…_She shows intelligence not usual for the typical four-year-old… She shows more of an aptitude for drawing; however has the capacity to count to fifty at such an early age… Her vision impairment doesn't seem to hinder her understanding of basic colors, shapes, and numbers… Her mild manner and her eagerness to please, in my opinion makes her a candidate for consideration to the Pretender Project… In conclusion, I recommend that Dr. Greene work with her, due to his history involving children with such impairments. I also agree with her earlier teachers that she should learn Braille rather then trying to use her vision for reading. It seems to be too much of a strain for her to read with her vision. I believe that her learning of Braille would facilitate for ease of her learning how to read and understand mathematics..."_

"…_She shows difficulty balancing while standing, walking and running... According to her parents, teaching her how to walk was a matter of tricking her mind into thinking that she was holding her parents' hands. Spoons were used to get her to walk… I recommend teaching her to use her kinesthetic abilities to balance... It is believed that her vision is hindering her ability to balance herself..."_

Sydney thought about that. (Would the lack of vision make things easier for her? No! That is something Raines would do…not you! But still… Ah well, I think it's time to introduce myself…)

**Author's Note**: Thank you all SO much for your kind reviews. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. The next two are short as well, but chapter Six so far is seven pages.

To one of my reviewers. You made me laugh, my apologies for giving you nightmares. (Whispers in their ear) If you'd be interested to know, it kinda scared me too.

Thank you all so much again, I can't thank you enough! Please offer criticism, suggestions, whatever you wish. And all of your suggestions and ideas for titles are greatly appreciated and you've got me thinking. I'll hopefully have a title in the next couple of days.

I just got home from school for Spring Break and have a paper and a model to build for classes next week, so I'll upload again hopefully in a few days. But thank you again!

-The Blind Apprentice


	3. Author's SOS

Hey guys,

Sorry this isn't an update for a chapter. I actually wanted to ask you all something.

I've actually written several chapters ahead in this story, but would prefer if someone would check over them for me and give me there opinion as to whether they fit with the story, or if I need to take the story in a different direction.

So, I am sending out an SOS. I need someone to help me, if they're willing.

Just PM me or send a message in a review. Whatever is easier for you.

Thank you so much for your continued support. And hopefully soon I will post another 'actual chapter'.

Thanks again.

The Blind Apprentice


End file.
